I can’t really say if it’s a better or a worse game than the original Max Payne. What I can say is that it’s a much more ambitious game. Remedy really put absolutely everything they had into the making of this game, and it always shows.
I think the story lacks a certain charm that comes with simplicity by trying to be a more convoluted, non-linear narrative, but the ambiance is still there, untouched. This one might be even grittier and more hopeless than the first game. Violence no longer has the murky justification of vengeance behind it, it’s just violence for violence’s sake. Max is still stylish and cool as hell to play ass, and Mona shines in her own way. Villains no longer have the personal involvement with Max’s goal of revenge as they did in the first game, so they feel a bit more anonymous here. Killing them isn’t personal anymore, they are just kind of in the way. The relationship with Mona is what drives the story forward, the rest of the plot is slightly unmemorable. Though dialogue is still as perfectly overwritten as ever.
The graphical upgrade seems to be where most of the money went. A truly impressive jump for a two-year gap between games. Really detailed and populated levels, a new physics system, and a surprising preference for in game cutscenes over the constant graphic novel panels from the first game, though I did end up missing them for a bit.
Platforming still isn’t good, but it works better here thanks to those upgrades mentioned before. And the shooting experience, while slightly different than in Max Payne 1, is still as delightful and engaging as ever. There’s a lesser reliance on dodging and jumping when enabling Bullet Time, which makes for an overall easier gameplay experience and took a bit of time to get used to. This kind of detail is what I mean when I say I can’t really pick which one is a better game, or which one I enjoyed the most, there are some subtle differences that make one approach gameplay in slightly different ways, while maintaining the same pretty much perfect core.
A real grimy delight that I beat in a day!
I think the story lacks a certain charm that comes with simplicity by trying to be a more convoluted, non-linear narrative, but the ambiance is still there, untouched. This one might be even grittier and more hopeless than the first game. Violence no longer has the murky justification of vengeance behind it, it’s just violence for violence’s sake. Max is still stylish and cool as hell to play ass, and Mona shines in her own way. Villains no longer have the personal involvement with Max’s goal of revenge as they did in the first game, so they feel a bit more anonymous here. Killing them isn’t personal anymore, they are just kind of in the way. The relationship with Mona is what drives the story forward, the rest of the plot is slightly unmemorable. Though dialogue is still as perfectly overwritten as ever.
The graphical upgrade seems to be where most of the money went. A truly impressive jump for a two-year gap between games. Really detailed and populated levels, a new physics system, and a surprising preference for in game cutscenes over the constant graphic novel panels from the first game, though I did end up missing them for a bit.
Platforming still isn’t good, but it works better here thanks to those upgrades mentioned before. And the shooting experience, while slightly different than in Max Payne 1, is still as delightful and engaging as ever. There’s a lesser reliance on dodging and jumping when enabling Bullet Time, which makes for an overall easier gameplay experience and took a bit of time to get used to. This kind of detail is what I mean when I say I can’t really pick which one is a better game, or which one I enjoyed the most, there are some subtle differences that make one approach gameplay in slightly different ways, while maintaining the same pretty much perfect core.
A real grimy delight that I beat in a day!